Cherry Chocolate Tart For The Win!

So this is so random but my neighbor said that she visited her old air force buddies and Waco and received a whole case of cherries. Basically a whole flat of cherries. And she gave me about 8 two lb bags of cherries. How nice right? I decided that I needed to figure out all of the ways I was going to use these cherries. I know I was going to make some cherry jam, some cherry curd, some kind of baked goodies, and some kind of cherry syrup. I also wanted to bake something nice for my neighbor who thought of me. I wanted to make a beautiful tart for her using some of the cherries. Hey when I think of cherries I also think of chocolate covered cherries. That's how this tart was born. I wanted to make that sweet pastry crust and fill it with a delicious chocolate filling and then top it with those yummy tart cherries. I challenged myself with the decoration for the top of the tart and I think it came out beautiful.

chocolate cherry tart

I also had a little pastry dough left to make me a tiny tart. I added crushed pistachios, and it was delicious.

look how cute that looks

Ok lets start on the crust

You will need the following

Pastry Shell (more than enough for a 9in tart pan)

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup  powdered sugar (or ¼ cup granulated sugar)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

First for the pastry shell, add flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor for a few seconds and pulse until combined. If you don’t have a food processor, you can do this by using a pastry cutter. 

Add butter and pulse until mixture becomes crumbly and resembles coarse meal, about 15 pulses.

Add egg and vanilla extract and keep pulsing until the dough is no longer dry and starts to clump together, about 10-15 seconds. Do not process to the point that a large ball of dough is formed; rather the dough should be quite crumbly with large clumps. Another way to check if it’s done is to take a piece of dough and press it between your thumbs – the dough should stick without feeling dry or crumbly.

Turn dough to a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. It should come together easily without being sticky. Flatten ball slightly with your hands to form a thick disc. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. I made this dough two days before and just placed it in the fridge for 2 days.

*If you don’t want to use the dough right away, you can refrigerate it for up to 3 days, or freeze it for up to a month and then thaw overnight in the fridge.

Now take your dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften slightly for easy rolling. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into an 11-inch circle, then place gently into a 9-inch tart pan (preferably with a removable bottom)

So know I wrap this tart crust in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to reduce shrinkage when baking. 

Take it out and prick the bottom of your tart dough with a fork

Preheat oven to 375F and place oven rack in the center.

Now I take a piece of aluminum foil and spray with baking spray or rub with butter and press it tightly to the crust. ( you can add pie weights, dried beans or rice to way down the foil and insure that your crust does not puff up while baking)

Bake crust for 20 minutes, until foil no longer sticks to the dough. Transfer crust to a wire rack and remove weights and foil.

Bake for about 7-10 minutes longer until golden brown and dry. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

you should be able to knock on the bottom of the crust without it falling apart.

Your crust should be a golden brown

Just let this cool completely before putting in any filling.

Now on to the filling 

Chocolate mousse filling

8oz of chocolate

3/4 cup of heavy cream

2 tablespoons of butter

1/4 cup of powdered sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

3/4 cup of heavy cream

Take 3/4 cup of heavy cream and place in a small saucepan over medium heat.

heat in saucepan until cream starts to bubble around the edges, add in vanilla extract.

remove from heat and pour over 8oz of chocolate

I like to let it sit like this for a minute before I whisk

whisk until combined

add in your two tablespoons of butter

whisk until butter is fully incorporated and then set aside.

now the ganache part is complete

shiny smooth ganache

next take 3/4 cup of cream and place in a bowl and whip until you achieve a soft whipped cream add in your powdered sugar and whip until combined

stop when it gets to this point don't beat this to like a stiff cream

Now fold this into your chocolate ganache mixture

just gently fold it in

so velvety good

Place this in your cooled tart shell

plop it in the shell

Now add half- pitted cherries in some sort of design

I thought it looked nice like this, but I wanted to showcase all the cherries.

at this point I was contemplating stopping, but I pushed on

keep going (this took me like 40 minutes) I don't have a cherry pitter so I had to do everything by hand, but it paid off guys.

beautiful cherry chocolate tart

I then sealed this cherries by microwaving a little cherry jam and brushing that on with a pastry brush and then I set the whole tart in the fridge for two hours before delivering to my neighbor.

It looks stunningly beautiful and the little mini one was delicious.

Look at this little mini chocolate cherry tart

look at the cute little flower of cherries

The neighbor said it tasted amazing and even came by and gave me a little thank you card. I was just thankful she gave me all those cherries so I could make some cool things, and I was happy that she enjoyed the tart. 

so nice

Almond Joy Cupcakes For The Win!

Well it's been a while and I did attempt to post the lime cheesecake recipe earlier in the week but it failed. I will be posting it just not today. I was thinking of things to bake and I thought about cupcakes. That's how this post was born. I mean who doesn't like cupcakes, they are the perfect size and they look cute. When you get the perfect bite ratio of frosting to cake you are in heaven. Oh and lets not forget about how portable cupcakes are. Ok, so I knew cupcakes were on the menu but I had to decide on the flavor. Chocolate is always a great choice because most people enjoy a chocolate cupcake. As for the frosting choice, I prefer a non chocolate buttercream because I feel like chocolate on chocolate is too much. I went with a coconut buttercream, so then I felt like hey this reminds me of an almond joy. Chocolate + coconut + almonds, thats what I went with.

chocolate cupcake with coconut filling and a coconut buttercream frosting

I think they turned out great. Oh and this recipe is totally adaptable, it's going to be your go to chocolate cupcake base. You can then customize this to however you'd like in the future. It's always great to have a good chocolate cupcake recipe in your  baking arsenal.

Chocolate Cupcake recipe

• 1 1/3 cup of All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of Salt
• 3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1 stick of Unsalted Butter (softened)
• 1 1/2 cup of Granulated Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of Milk
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Coconut Filling

• 1/2 cup of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 to 1 1/2 cup of Shredded Coconut

Coconut Buttercream

• 2 sticks of Softened Unsalted Butter 
• 1-2 cups of Powdered Sugar (depend on your taste)
• 2-3 tablespoons of Coconut Extract
• 1/4 cup of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Additional Items Needed

• cupcake liners
• cupcake or muffin tin
• hand mixer
• mixing bowls
• piping bags
• dark chocolate for garnish
• almonds for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

 Add the eggs all in, beat well, then stir in the vanilla.

 Add the 1/3 of the flour mixture  then mix

Then alternate with the milk (I didn't have regular milk so I used chocolate milk) about half a cup; beat well.

Chocolate Milk and it's Lactose Free.....yay

Repeat process until you have no more milk and flour mixture. You should be left with a smooth silky batter.

Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 F for 18-20  minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Take them out of the oven and let cool on a wire rack

cupcakes cooling off 

Now on to the coconut filling. It's simple just mix the coconut and condensed milk together

For the coconut buttercream start with whipping your butter for 5-7 minutes on high speed. The butter will turn a pale yellow color and increase in size.

Next add in your powdered sugar and turn your mixer on low ( you don't want powdered sugar everywhere) I also add in the coconut extract and taste as I go and adjust if I need more sugar or extract, when I find the taste and texture smooth I add in the condensed milk and whip until incorporated.

This taste great just off of the spoon

Your buttercream should be smooth and silky and stiff enough to pipe, place the buttercream in a piping bag

Now to assemble these I began by using a little teaspoon measuring spoon and carving out a little hole in each cupcake. I then filled with the coconut+condensed milk mixture (make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled down)

Coconut + condensed milk filling

Then I piped a swirl of coconut buttercream to cover the top of the coconut mixture

look how silky that coconut buttercream is

I then melted a little dark chocolate and placed it in a piping bag and piped that on top of the cupcakes with some almond slivers, now they are finished.

Finished product with dark chocolate drizzle and almond slivers

Chocolate + Coconut are so good together

Almond Joy Cupcakes

cut in half so you can see that yummy coconut filling

These cupcakes are so moist and delicious, the added coconut filling makes these cupcakes taste amazing. I made one dozen with this recipe along with enough extra batter to make a small mini cake. So if you don't make the mini cake you can probably get 16-18 cupcakes out of this recipe. Also feel free to double the frosting to pile high on each cupcake.